Wednesday, October 6, 2010

nobel prize in physics 2010: playing with tape!

this year's nobel prize in physics has been awarded to two scientists based in the UK: andre geim and 36 year old konstantin novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

of course, brady was prepared for the announcement this morning, and put together a nice sixty symbols video explaining the science behind this year's award.

i like that such a simple idea, that was essentially "let's stick tape to pencil lead and see how thin a layer we can pull off," turned out to be an incredibly successful experiment! interestingly, the two winners have been known throughout their careers as being quirky and creative scientists. geim is no stranger to winning prizes, as he also won an Ig Nobel award in 2000 for levitating a frog with magnets. amazing!

cheers fellas, for proving that creativity and fun should be applied to all aspects of life, including science!